Image analysis – Editing – error checking – or correction – Including operator interaction
Reexamination Certificate
1999-03-03
2002-04-09
Johns, Andrew W. (Department: 2621)
Image analysis
Editing, error checking, or correction
Including operator interaction
C345S215000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06370282
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The field of the present invention pertains to input output systems for portable hand held digital electronic devices. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method and system for efficient alphanumeric input and output for hand-held digital electronic devices.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
There are many different kinds of handheld digital electronic devices. Many devices incorporate displays for implementing input and output with a user. The displays depict the text entered by the user and also depict graphical output of the electronic device.
Different electronic devices from different manufacturers use different means for inputting alphanumeric information into the device. Depending upon the type of device and its characteristics (e.g., size, type of display, intended use, and the like), some input means are more advantageous than others. For example, some devices lend themselves to the incorporation of some type of miniature keyboard (e.g., a “Palm sized” personal computer), while other types of devices require alternative alphanumeric input means (e.g., a portable digital camera).
For example, in the case of a digital camera, while many types of digital cameras are equipped with a liquid crystal display (LCD) or other type of display screen, there's currently no sufficiently simple, intuitive way for a user to enter substantial amounts of text directly into the camera. While the incorporation of an LCD allows the digital camera to be easily controlled and manipulated and also provides an intuitive and easily used method for displaying device status, operating mode, stored images, etc. to the user, the necessarily small size of the LCD limits its utility with regard to the entering of substantial amounts of text. In addition to the small LCD size, the available area of the body of the digital camera that can be used for the inclusion of buttons, switches, mode dials, etc., is limited.
For example, in the case of LCD equipped digital cameras, in addition to an LCD, the cameras also typically include a number of buttons, switches, and dials for configuring the operating modes of the camera, navigating between images in play mode, and the like. For example, most digital cameras include buttons (e.g., two buttons labeled “−” and “+”) that enable a user to navigate or scroll through captured images. One or more of the buttons could be implemented as software programmable buttons (e.g., “softkeys”). While this type of interface is designed to be very efficient at interfacing the user with the capabilities of the digital camera, it has proven to be very cumbersome when used to enter substantial amounts of text directly into the camera.
One prior art method used for alphanumeric text entry involves the graphical depiction of a “selection wheel” on the display of the digital camera wherein the selection wheel determines which alphanumeric character is selected for actuation. Two or more buttons are used to “scroll” the selection wheel among the included alphanumeric characters in order to “highlight” the particular character of interest (e.g., when the particular character of interest is highlighted beneath a “selection window” overlaid on top of the selection wheel). Once the character of interest is highlighted, a SoftKey or other button is used to select, or actuate, the highlighted character, thereby entering it into, for example, a line of text being generated on the display.
Prior art
FIG. 1A
shows a diagram of a selection wheel type of text entry display
101
. Display
101
graphically depicts an alphanumeric selection wheel
102
, a text entry area
103
, scroll indicators
105
and
106
, and a highlight window
107
. Softkeys
110
-
112
are depicted at the bottom of display
101
. As described above, the user enters text into text entry area
103
by using scroll indicators
105
and
106
to scroll selection wheel
102
(e.g., up or down) until the desired character appears under highlight window
107
. Entered text appears within the text entry area
103
, with each successive character appearing above a cursor
115
. The scroll indicators are actuated via softkeys
110
and
111
. The highlighted character is selected via softkey
112
. In this manner, the user enters the desired text, scrolling and selecting the appropriate characters as they appear underneath the highlight window
107
, incrementally generating the desired text as it appears in text entry window
103
.
Another prior art method involves the depiction of a standard “QWERTY” keyboard on the display of the electronic device (e.g., a handheld personal digital assistant) wherein one or more softkeys/buttons determine which alphanumeric character is highlighted and whether the highlighted character is selected or actuated. For example, in the case of a touch screen equipped PDA (personal digital assistant), in some cases, the user actually “types” out the desired text information by touching characters of interest with a stylus, thereby generating text on the display, character by character. The keys of the keyboard representation are touched with the stylus in order to highlight particular alphanumeric characters. A backspace key is often depicted to ease the task of editing the text. An “entered text” area is often depicted which shows the current text being edited. Use of the stylus allows text being edited in the text area to be highlighted or otherwise manipulated by the user. Other keys are included for entering various types of symbols or other special characters.
Prior art
FIG. 1B
shows a diagram of a touch screen keyboard depiction type of text entry display
121
. Display
121
graphically depicts a text entry area
122
, a keyboard area
123
, and editing keys
124
-
126
. As described above, using the keyboard depiction, the user enters text into the text entry area
122
by touching desired characters depicted within keyboard area
123
with a separate stylus (not shown). Text is displayed within the text entry area
122
as it is entered by the user. Editing keys
124
-
126
(e.g., enter, backspace, and delete) are used to edited text displayed in the text entry area
122
. Using the keyboard depiction, the user enters the desired text, typing in the desired text one character at a time with the stylus.
Both of the above methods present problems for the user. In the case of the selection wheel method, using a graphically depicted selection wheel in conjunction with one or more buttons on the digital camera is not particularly intuitive to a user. For example, the location of numerical characters on the selection wheel with respect to the text characters is not immediately obvious to a user. Typically, the numerical characters (numbers) are located either before or after the text characters (e.g., after the last alphabetical character “Z”). Their location and the means for accessing them is often not intuitive. Further, once the numeric characters are accessed, often the manner in which individual numeric characters are accessed is counter intuitive. For example, whereas one softkey/button is used to “move” the selection wheel up or down to select text characters earlier or later in the alphabet, the same softkey/button could use multiple different schemes to access the numerical characters, such as, for example, whether higher numerical characters are selected on the selection wheel by moving the softkey/button up or down to move the selection wheel up or down. Another problem is the fact that the user is required to traverse several steps in order to input text, which can make inputting large amounts of text (e.g., such as a meaningful description of a complex scene) tedious and frustrating.
In the case of the miniature QVWERTY keyboard representation, graphically depicting all of the keys of the keyboard within the limited size of the touch screen makes the individual keys of the keyboard quite small. This leads to problems wherein the user inadvertently selects the incorrect alphanumeric character. A important disadvantage of this
Anderson Eric C.
Pavley John F.
Azarian Seyed
FlashPoint Technology Inc.
Johns Andrew W.
Sawyer Law Group LLP
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